September 7 is the International Day of “Clean Air for Blue Skies”, celebrated by the UN. This Saturday is an opportunity to remember that millions of people die each year around the world from complications related to air pollution. Among the cities with the most polluted air in the world is Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
The city of Kinshasa has, on average, a rate of PM 2.5 (fine particles present in the air and which are harmful to health), ten times higher than the air quality threshold recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Contacted by RFI, climatologist Jean-Pierre Ndjibu discusses the main causes why Kinshasa is so polluted: ” You have a very large city with more than 15 million inhabitants who live in complete promiscuity and this is what makes the city produce a lot of waste. It is the quantity of waste that makes the avenues, rivers and streets become public dumps, it is one of the first causes and it is the most important because, at the time of decomposition, the elements are imported into the atmosphere and constitute suspended particles.
On the occasion of the International Day of Clean Air for blue skiesUN Secretary-General António Guterres has launched a vibrant appeal for stronger international cooperation to address ” the global emergency ” which constitutes the worsening of air pollution.
- RFI
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